Over two decades, the Sunset Beach Junior Lifeguard Program has seen 17,000 children go through. Still, homeowners want the popular program closed and the city of Huntington Beach agrees. COURTESY JIM BALOK

Children line up on the sand for the Sunset Beach junior llfeguard program. After more than two decades, the popular summer camp is being closed by Huntington Beach. COURTESY JIM BALOK

Graphics

There is a window in our lives when anything seems possible. At 8, we may hope to become the next Kelly Slater. At 17, the next Jacques Cousteau.

Nothing – especially not grown-up squabbles – should interfere with those dreams. But in the very place we call "Surf City," adults are killing a successful junior lifeguard program.

Nine-year-old Tommy Steele tells me about the popular program in Sunset Beach that he fell in love with last year and still hopes to return to this summer: "I wish it was going to happen because me and my friend were going to do it together. I'm really sad."

Adults see shuttering the program differently. For many with beachfront homes, the summer camp is a noisy, messy, traffic-congested nightmare. And for some Huntington Beach city officials, an agreement with the Sunset Beach Community Association to end Tommy's program is set in concrete.

But adult perspectives shouldn't become kids' problems. If you're Tommy's age, the freedom to spend summers at the beach disappears all too soon.

• • •

Like most adult disputes, this is a complicated mess with much history. I'll try to keep it simple.

While President George H.W. Bush was calling for the Gulf War in 1991, Jim Balok was launching his California Junior Lifeguards Programs.

Yes, this program started when some of the parents of the kids were kids.

Over time, it grew and has seen 17,000 children go through. Lessons range from ocean swimming to positive peer relations. An average year sees 400 kids certified in CPR.

Today, the operation reportedly puts about $34,000 a year in Huntington Beach's coffers and includes a matching program in South County, a standup paddle course and a summer camp in Newport Beach's Back Bay.

The Sunset Beach junior lifeguard program serves North County cities and offers several things that most other classes in the area don't. One, it has less-stringent swim times for admittance. Two, the program offers longer hours and more weeks.

One mother, Susan Conroy, points out, "As all parents know, a big issue we face every summer is: What are the kids going to do while we are at work?"

Many junior lifeguards return summer after summer. Beka Smith, a 14-year-old Cypress resident, started when she was 8. A volunteer instructor, she tells me that she once feared the ocean. Now, she says, "I'm the biggest ocean person ever.

"This has changed my life so much. I can't stop."

• • •

About two years ago, the Sunset Beach Community Association and Huntington Beach finalized plans for the city to annex Sunset Beach. There was something called a memorandum of understanding. Among other things, it called for the end of the junior lifeguard program in 2012.

In a move I find baffling, the Huntington Beach council agreed.

Sunset Beach Community Association President Mike Van Voorhas explains that he liked the program in its early days, and that his kids were enrolled. But "it kept growing and growing." Over time, Van Voorhas says, the camp grew to 300 kids. Jim Balok, program director, maintains that classes are limited to 200 at any one time.

"It's a good program; there's no question about that," the association president acknowledges. "Unfortunately, some good programs are in the wrong place.

"It's really impacting the quality of life," Van Voorhas says. "It's all summer, every summer." He cites long lines of cars in the morning and afternoon when parents drop off and pick up kids.

"It's very, very inconvenient."

• • •

I've never seen the Sunset Beach camp in action, but I know something about such camps.

When I was in college, I worked as a Red Cross-certified lifeguard and instructor at a family camp in Michigan. From my perspective, Balok's is indeed a big operation. But he also has a big beach.

The homes directly affected by the Sunset program are sandwiched between two large public areas. On the land side directly behind the homes, there's a small public park and a series of parking lots.

Balok counts 660 parking spaces and says the program uses only a half-dozen.

On the ocean side, the public beach is about 200 feet wide. No, I can't be sure of the exact width. Many of the homeowners have plants, rock gardens and paths that extend onto the sand and beyond their patios by 20 feet or more.

Balok says he keeps classes 150 feet from homes and contends he's mitigated the impact. His staff carpools; he's hired traffic coordinators; students pick up trash far beyond the area used; he forbids the children to use public paths between homes.

Still, Mayor Connie Boardman tells me the city has no interest in unilaterally changing the memorandum. Boardman also points out that Balok waited two years before looking for an alternate site.

Councilman Joe Carchio, mayor when the annexation was approved, appears more flexible. He echoes Boardman, saying Balok should have tried to work things out earlier. Still, Carchio says the door is open for compromise. "We're willing to absorb all those kids."

But Carchio adds that for the city to accommodate Balok's program, it must become a nonprofit and be placed under the city's junior lifeguard program. Balok's is a business.

As I said, adult messes are complicated.

• • •

I ask Balok and program director Larry Jacklin why they waited so long to look for a new home.

They say they simply figured things would resolve themselves, that it didn't seem possible the program would actually be canceled. Recently, they scrambled and now report that they are unable to find anywhere to keep the camp intact.

Sure, it bugs me that the leaders waited, just as it bugs me the city went along with the request to end the program. But neither move is the kids' fault. The grown-up groups have regularly scheduled meetings over the past week. Let's hope some adult decisions are made.

Related Links

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.